Across the Hall
by pretty-eshne
Summary: After Dawn finished college the Scoobies chipped in and got her an apartment. Across the hall is her neighbor, Henry Fitzroy. BTVSBlood Ties Crossover
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own Blood Ties, Buffy the Vampire Slayer of anything related to them. If I did, Henry Fitzroy would definitely be mine.

Chapter 1

Dawn slid to the floor outside her new apartment. She was completely exhausted after hauling her many belongings to her apartment from the rented van in the street. Even though Xander and Buffy had been there helping her to unpack, it had taken several hours to get settled into her apartment. Her new apartment was exactly what she wanted it to be and more.

Speaking of her sister and Xander, she had just said good night to them and had seen them out of the apartment building. She was so grateful that her sister and her friends had managed to get her apartment for her graduation present. She had recently finished her final year at New York University. The only bad thing about her new apartment was the location. She loved Toronto, she did, but it was so far away from Rome. Rome had become a second home to the Scoobies after Sunnydale collapsed. Dawn took comfort in the fact that the Scoobies promised to visit.

Dawn tilted her head backwards and opened her eyes, looking at the ceiling. She sighed and realized she would have to start looking for a job the next day to keep up her rent. She looked at the door across the hall and wondered about her neighbor. She had yet to see anybody enter or leave the apartment building, her and her friends not included. She pushed herself up from the floor and was getting ready to head inside when she realized that she had locked her keys in the apartment.

Muffling a sigh of frustration, Dawn walked down the stairs. She always took the stairs instead of the elevator. No matter how many floors she had to walk up or down, she never took the elevator. Elevators held a very terrible memory for Dawn. She tried not to think of the elevator as she walked. 'Besides,' she thought, 'walking is good exercise.'

When she reached the lobby, she headed towards the front desk. Dawn saw that the man at the counter was the same friendly guy from earlier. Dawn slowed her walk, a little embarrassed to have locked herself out of her apartment on her first night there. "Hi. Ummm… I was wondering if you have keys to the apartments."

The door opened before the man replied, "Of course, Ms. Summers. Why?"

"I locked my keys in my apartment." Dawn mumbled her reply.

"Well here," he said, handing her a key. "Just bring it back down when you're done with it."

"Thanks." Dawn turned and walked back to the stairway, feeling eyes on her the entire time. Before the door closed she heard the man from the desk speak again. He told a Mr. Fitzroy that he did not have any messages. Dawn shrugged her shoulders in indifference. She didn't know who Mr. Fitzroy was. 'Maybe he's my neighbor,' she thought to herself.

When she reached her apartment, she unlocked the door and went inside. She found her keys resting on the table in the kitchen. "Exactly where I left you." She said to herself. As she picked up her keys a feeling of awe came over her. She stood in her kitchen, keys in hand, and realized exactly how lucky she was. 'This is exactly what I need,' Dawn thought, 'a place to start over. I can be whoever I want to be. I get to start over, which is the thing I've always wanted.'

Dawn left her apartment with a smile on her face and her keys in her pocket. For the first time in a long time she felt at peace. She was very happy. Though having no family in the city did scare her a bit, she felt ecstatic to know that she had a clean slate in Toronto. She jogged down the flights of stairs and into the lobby. She smiled at the man at the desk and handed him the key he had lent her. With quick thanks she left the lobby. When she reached her floor, she left the stairway. She saw the door of the apartment across from her own closing. 'I guess I'll have to wait to meet my neighbor,' she thought.

Dawn entered her apartment with a smile and decided to go to bed. She was still tired and was looking forward to starting her life in her new apartment. Even though she had a lot to do before things would be completely settled and normal, she was looking forward to helping it become normal. She had a strong feeling that her life would have a lot of changes for the better.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own Blood Ties, Buffy the Vampire Slayer of anything related to them. If I did, Henry Fitzroy would definitely be mine.

Thanks for all the reviews. Does anybody know what a beta is? Oh and I was also wondering if anybody else was planning on starting another Blood Ties fan fiction soon?

Please keep reviewing!

Chapter 2

Dawn could feel the warm flow of blood from the gash in her side leaking onto her pants. She winced as she quickly pulled herself to her feet. She was fighting a unusually large Polgara demon and the demon had almost skewered her when the fight first began. The demon roared in Dawn's general direction as she tried to make her way to her specialized stun gun.

The stun gun had been a gift from both Willow and Xander. Unlike the stun guns that the Initiative had possessed, hers was smaller, had far more power, and could change the type of stun depending on the type of demon. Willow and Xander had worked so hard on it and it had saved Dawn's life more than once. She felt extremely grateful for the specialized weapon. Dawn managed to reach her gun before the demon reached her. With her left hand applying pressure to her injury, she used her right hand to fire her stun gun at the demon. Her shot hit the Polgara demon in the middle of its forehead and knocked it out almost instantly. Dawn stood still in the alley for a few seconds before picking up a random metal pole. She walked toward the unconscious demon and thrust the pole into its head, killing it immediately. She left the metal pole imbedded in the demon's forehead and turned. She gathered her scattered belongings that she had dropped before the fight headed back to her apartment complex.

On the way back to her apartment, Dawn wondered how she would explain her injury to the people whom she ran into. She really hoped that, for once, the person at the front desk would be on a break without a replacement. If she was lucky, she also wouldn't run into any of her neighbors, most of whom she had yet to meet. The few that she had met hadn't seemed very friendly and hadn't appeared often.

As she reached her apartment complex, a wave of nausea and dizziness hit her. She leaned on the wall outside the complex and closed her eyes. Behind her eyes, a few flashes of the fight appeared. Dawn started of thinking of all the accidents and good moves on her part. She realized that she would have to find a suitable job and, after her wound healed, a decent gym.

Finally, the dizziness and nausea passed. Dawn slowly moved herself away from the wall and breathed deep. She felt a presence behind but it didn't feel as though it had harmful intentions for her. She walked toward the glass doors that led to the lobby. Before she could open one of them an employee opened it from the inside. She gave a small start and quickly realized that presence behind her had disappeared. She mumbled a soft thanks to the doorman and hurried inside.

As she was walking past the front desk, the employee there saw her and smiled. "Hello, Ms. Summers. Did you have a good night?" As the employee said this, the man he had been talking to turned around. Dawn gave him a brief glance over. He had brown, curly hair and wore it long. His face was a work of art in itself with prominent cheek bones, obvious angles, and regal lines. He had light blue eyes that shown brightly against his pale skin. He had lean muscles on an obviously graceful body that was about three inches taller than her five foot seven inches. A small smirk graced his features despite that Dawn ignored him after her once over.

"Yeah, it was okay…" she trained off, not knowing his name.

"Barry, Ms. Summers." Barry said politely. His eyes widened as he continued to look at her. "Damn! What happened to your side, Ms. Summers?"

"Ummm…I fell on something pointy outside. You should really go check on that. Somebody else could get hurt by it and sue." Dawn replied in a rushed tone. "Anyways, I think I'm going to go upstairs to my apartment now."

"Are you sure you wouldn't like some help?" asked the unknown man as he stepped towards her. His eyes looked slightly glazed and a smirk, larger than before, was on his face. Dawn could feel power coming from him and backed up, running into the closed elevator doors.

"I don't need your help. I mean, um, no thank you." She blurted out as she pushed the up button on the elevator. Miraculously, the doors opened quickly. She nearly fell as the opened behind. She entered the elevator and hit the close button repeatedly. She continued to look at the unknown man as she pushed the button, noting that the glazed look in his eyes had completely disappeared despite his remaining smirk.

After the elevator closed she leaned against the wall. The doors soon opened and she walked into her apartment. She quickly stripped herself of her shirt and went about tending to her injury. After patching herself up, she got into her pajamas and went to bed, the image of the extremely handsome and unknown man from the lobby in her head.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own Blood Ties, Buffy the Vampire Slayer of anything related to them. If I did, Henry Fitzroy would definitely be mine.

Thanks for all the reviews. I am really happy that you all like my fan fiction so far.

Please keep reviewing; I'll give you a large double chocolate chip cookie if you do!

Chapter 3

Dawn pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a soft sigh. Her first day of work had not been good. Earlier in the week she had managed to find a job as nurse at the local Toronto Hospital. She worked in the emergency room with a team of amazing surgeons. Along with working in the E.R., she also had to fill in for one of the triage nurses that failed to show up for work. The E.R. was something she felt prepared to deal with, she had been trained to work there. She had not, however, been trained to work as a triage nurse. Dawn would've most likely been fine except that the other triage nurses were slacking. They didn't help the people who needed help most; instead they helped whoever came in first.

Her work in the E.R. had been relatively fine, well…fine by E.R. standards. Dawn had mostly helped car crash victims. There were a few people who seriously injured themselves in their own home but they were few and far between. Dawn had helped to the best of her knowledge and ability. The last victim she saw in the E.R. had puzzled her though. A blonde woman had come in. She was having trouble breathing because she had been strangled. That hadn't bothered Dawn at all. She was more curious about the strange feeling that she had gotten when she was near the woman. Said feeling led Dawn to believe that the woman had been attacked by some sort of demon. She had made a mental note to talk to Willow about it later.

As she was walking to her apartment, Dawn realized how glad she was that she didn't live in a bad part of Toronto. She had discovered many dark alleys in Toronto and it would've just made things worse if she had to fend off demons as well as human thugs. Speaking of demons, she could sense one following her. Dawn made a quick decision and turned into a nearby alley. As she entered the alley, she pulled a stake from her purse. She turned and saw a vampire at the alley's entrance. Making sure that the stake was hidden from his view she said, "You know, it really isn't polite to stalk people. Most don't see it as a compliment."

"If I'd wanted my food to talk, I wouldn't have followed you into this alley." The vampire sneered.

"I guess you must like hearing yourself talk then." Dawn said with a shrug. After hearing the insult, the vampire lunged at Dawn. With one quick movement Dawn brought the stake up in front of herself and the vampire ran right into it. He exploded into dust, showering Dawn in small, grey flakes of vampire dust. "Gross. Now I have to clean blood and vampire dust out of my scrubs," said Dawn with a sigh.

Dawn continued down the street and smiled when she saw her apartment complex. She liked having her own place to go home to. She loved her apartment. Going home to it each day never got old. _'I might not have the boyfriend to go with the apartment, but that's okay.'_ Dawn, being so wrapped up in her own thoughts, didn't even notice that she was about to walk straight into another person. Dawn gasped as she fell into an old woman. Her right knee slammed into the ground and she spilled most of the contents of her purse. "Sorry," Dawn gasped out after hitting the ground. The old woman just huffed and looked down her nose at Dawn before striding away.

Dawn moved her knee and cursed. Falling had scraped up her knee pretty badly, despite her wearing pants. Being careful to keep her knee from touching the pavement, she turned and began to gather her stuff. She was reaching for her wallet when another, more masculine hand beat her to it. She looked up and saw the gorgeous, anonymous man from her apartment building. "Hi," she said staring into his eyes.

"I think this is yours," he said. He handed her the wallet with a small smirk on his face.

"Yeah, thanks. I dropped when I fell. I'm Dawn. You're in my building aren't you?" Dawn asked. Dawn realized that he had been looking at her intently while she spoke.

"I am. And you're my new neighbor. I'm Henry Fitzroy. I live across the hall from you. And unfortunately for my, I have to go somewhere so I can't help you back there." He said with a cross between a smirk and a smile on his face. Dawn nodded and he helped her to her feet. "I'll see you soon, Dawn," Henry said with a world of confidence. He gave her on final smirk before turning and walking down the street and, finally, out of her line of sight.

His power gave her the shivers and she couldn't tell if they were good or bad. Dawn knew that Henry was different. His looks were astounding and perfect but that wasn't what made him feel different to Dawn. He felt powerful and he exuded a slightly magical aura. She didn't want to jump to conclusions and say he was demonic but she would still be ready anyway. The next time they met, Dawn would be prepared for a demonic problem if one arose. She was looking forward to running into him again. With a smile, Dawn headed into her building.


End file.
